Play Time with Mark Mehaffey

Last week I attended a workshop by Mark Mehaffey that was sponsored by the Baltimore Watercolor Society. He had us start out with some basic and complex color plan options. Some were great reminders of the different mood you can set in a painting using color, others were new and intriguing that will likely take some time to master.

5 of 8 Color Plans

That was the end of "the known" for me. From there Mark took us on quite a trip through working on slick surfaces and non-objective painting. We did occasionally travel back to representational at the most unexpected times. Slick surfaces included yupo and watercolor paper we had coated with gesso. I had not used either before, but Mark really took away the uncertainty and mystery of using these surfaces with watercolor and gouache. I'm not sure how often I will use slick surfaces, but it is great knowing I can. The fear is gone. I also believe I can adopt some of what Mark taught us to work with fluid acrylics, that I have grown to love. Taking all of the new knowledge and stretching my style to incorporate it when appropriate for my subject will be wonderful.

Gesso'd Hot Press Watercolor Paper

Needless to say this workshop was fun and stimulating. Mark really made us think, leaving us exhausted by the end of the day. I know I was not the only one to go home and crash after an intense day of contemplative painting.At one point Mark revealed The Secret of Great Art, "work hard", and he made us do just that. However, I think we all loved every moment of the workshop. Examples of some of the paintings I produced during the workshop are included at right and below. You can see they vary from my painting style, but that is the point of a workshop. Learn something new then incorporate elements of the new information into your work allowing you to propel and grow your work. Mark referred to time he takes to explore new ideas as "Play Time." I definitely had a lot of Play Time last week, and it was a blast.

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Favorite Quotes

"Time spent in a painting is very much like going there again on vacation. And when the painting is done, I have seen every detail and nuance so thoroughly, that a glance at the completed work is sufficient for a short visit." (John Burk)

"The secret of great art - to rob the moment of its impermanence." (Ivan Lissner)

"If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint , then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced." (Vincent van Gogh)

"Rejection leads to persistence, and persistence is what it is all about." (Maria Scrivan)

"Many of life' failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." (Thomas A. Edison)

"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." (Michelangelo)

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down "happy". They told me I didn't understand the assignment. I told them they didn't understand life." (John Lennon)

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, ... Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” (Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It)

“All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.” (Marc Chagall)